| Dr. Jai Maharaj 2005-09-24, 2:26 pm |
| WOMEN OF VISION
Reclaiming Sadhana: Nourisher of Health
Let us practice wholesome activities that allow us to
dance within Nature's cosmic rhythms
By Brahmacharini Maya Tiwari
Hinduism Today
http://www.hinduismtoday.com
February 1998
My early life was fostered by wholesome practices that
preserved the good Earth -- the practices of sadhana.
Before my birth, my family moved from the sacred land of
India to the isolated land of Guyana. Because Guyana was
about one hundred years behind the technological world,
we were able to safeguard our ancestral memories through
the practice of sadhana. The Sanskrit etymology of the
word sadhana comes from the single root 'sadh,' that
bears a multitude of meanings. In its original and whole
sense, however, sadhana is the wholesome activities
practiced in harmony with the cyclical rhythms of nature.
By practicing these activities provided by the universe
to sustain salubrious health, my family secured our
rhythmic, harmonic sonority with the Divine. For all
humans, practice of sadhana is the vital means of
accessing cognitive memory -- memories gathered through
our past lives. Once our cognitive memories are awakened
and our remembering self begins to function, we are able
to achieve resplendent health.
Far away from the homeland of India, my family preserved
the practice of sadhana. The land was the hearth of my
people's practice. The Vedic rituals they performed were
a living recreation of the sacred, tied as they were to
the bounty of the Earth and the sweat of the people. As a
result, our cognate wisdom was maintained by the elders
who kept these sadhanas alive.
In my youth, I listened to family elders tell stories of
the Earth practices of my ancestors, the ancestors of
India. The Vedic heritage of India and Nepal begins with
the story of the ancient sages, called rishis, who lived
in Aryavarta, the sacred land of the Himalayas. Here,
sadhana as a practice first emerged. These ancient sages
experienced the Divine in all activities, assimilated the
vibrations of the Divine and transmuted them into their
thoughts, thereby bringing forth knowledge in the form of
sound. Their primal intention was to cognize the infinite
consciousness by communing with nature's cosmic rhythms,
bonding with the trees, herbs, rivers, animals -- all of
life. Within each finite form they recognized the
infinite. From there, they ascended to cognize the
absolute Divine Love found equally in all things. Through
their sadhana, they sustained land, water, wind and fire.
Although modern life is nearly an antithesis to the
ancient land of Aryavarta, through the practice of
sadhana, each of us can begin to recognize the infinite
in the finite. By reordering our lives to move within the
cosmic rhythms we can cognize the absolute Divine Love
found equally and wholly in all things.
Twenty years ago, I redirected myself toward living a
life entwined with nature. I was led back to the
Himalayas. I found myself descending from a mountain to
face the light shadows of an afternoon sun, stretching
across the forest of winter trees adorned with ice. The
iced branches accentuated nature's dynamic structure in
fluent movement. Each branch seemed to replicate the
cosmic forms, musical symbols, horns of the reindeer,
delicate tear drops, letters of the Sanskrit alphabet,
shapes of animals, spiral of creation and the six-pointed
star of the snowflake, all brought forth from the
vibration within nature.
Here, in the serene Himalayan winter, I first recognized
that all of nature is perpetually within sadhana. In this
state of profound personal serenity I was thrust to the
depths of my heart, where I discovered the true nature of
sadhana. Sadhana is formed from ojas, prana and tejas.
These three primordial principles coalesce into the
cosmic templates of food, breath and sound. This
discovery, rooted in the wisdom of the Vedas, emerged as
my observance of human life within nature deepened. On
top of that Himalayan mountain, my own cognition awoke to
the ways of universal sadhana.
The healing forces of sadhana work through nature in many
ways. The leaves and bark of the trees are continually
massaged by the wind; the rocks and pebbles are rubbed by
the streams and rivers; the animals are brushed by the
undergrowth of the forests and the birds are caressed by
the wind and skies. These natural motions are part of the
universe's immense rhythms and comprise her innate
practice of sadhana. All forms of life, other than the
human species, naturally remain in the bliss of their
Mother's bosom, enduring life, obeying their instincts
for survival.
We are also equipped with this universal instinct, with
cosmic impulses that irretrievably bond us to the
creation. We need only redirect our life to move within
the cosmic rhythms, instead of fighting the natural
order, and our universal instinct will guide us. In the
practice of sadhana, we may be able to resume our human
birthright as stewards who safeguard all of life. Sadhana
is more than humans' mere duty to dharma. To quote
Rabindranath Tagore, in discussion of one who practices
sadhana: "The water does not merely cleanse our limbs,
but it purifies our heart, for it touches our soul. The
Earth does not merely hold our body, but it gladdens our
mind, for its contact is more that a physical contact. It
is a living presence." And when we learn to dance within
the Earth's cosmic rhythms, we begin to heal from a core
deep within us. We experience sadhana.
More at:
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The terrorist mission of Jesus stated in the Christian bible:
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not so send
peace, but a sword.
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the
daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in
law.
"And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
- Matthew 10:34-36.
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